Monthly Archives: July 2011

Whenever I find an ant in the sugar it makes me think of Scarface. I bet this ant (Anty Montana? Tony Montanta?) is having the time of its life at the moment, but it will soon become paranoid and alienate all its friends. This can only end in tears. And violence.

I haven’t blogged in a while. While this is largely because of laziness, it’s also because I’ve been busy chasing a recipe around the internet, tracking it’s changes over time and over blogs, and this has taken up a bit of time and a lot of brain space. It’s part of my masters, and hopefully I’ll write something about it soon.

In the meantime, here’s a recipe for onion bhaji.

Both times I’ve made onion bhaji I’ve served it with dhal and rice. This is really just to maintain some sort of pretense that I’ve made a proper dinner. If I didn’t feel like I have to act like an adult at least some of the time, I would happily eat a whole plate of onion bhaji and leave the dahl. It’s not that I don’t like dahl, it’s just that it’s not fried onion, so, well, it’s just not as good. I’ve made it with dahl with spinach and red lentil dahl with spinach. I preferred the red lentil one, and it was also quicker to make.

Whisk yoghurt, flour, spices and salt together until combined. It should be about the consistency of pancake batter. Leave in a warm place for a few hours.

Add onion, lemon, coriander and chilli to the yoghurt mix and stir until combined and onion is evenly coated in batter.

To fry, I heat about 5 cm of oil over a high heat in the tallest big pot I have. I use a tall pot so the oil doesn’t spit out as easily. Here it is, the one at the front:

When the oil starts to look really thin and I can see small bubbles, I (very carefully) slip tong-fulls (is that even a term?) of the onion mixture in. The tongs seem good because the excess batter comes off in the bowl, and I can then use them to turn the onion over in the oil so they cook evenly. Fry until dark golden brown, which doesn’t take long, and then scoop out the bhaji and place on a plate covered with paper towel to drain the excess oil. The whole procedure is a little terrifying, to be honest, what with the hot oil and my habit of hurting myself in the kitchen, but the reward is awesome. Especially if there is enough left over for me to make an onion bhaji and dahl bento for lunch:

Who doesn’t love brownies? No one, that’s who. These ones have raspberries AND chocolate chips in them. They didn’t last long enough for me to try them with ice-cream, but I reckon that would have been pretty good, especially if the brownies were warmed slightly.

The recipe is from The Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander. I made some slight modifications by adding the raspberries and cooking it in a smaller tin to make the brownies thicker.

Chocolate raspberry brownies
Makes 16, or however many squares you want to cut

Mix butter and cocoa in a small bowl, then add sugar, vanilla and eggs. Mix in remaining ingredients.

Pour into prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until firm but still moist. You need to keep an eye on it, and I erred on the slightly underdone side, just because I like really soft brownies. If you use a bigger tin it might only take 20-25 minutes.

Allow to cool in tin completely. Dust with (lots of) icing sugar and cut into squares.